Avalanche coach Joe Sacco this afternoon said that winger Kevin Porter, who suffered what the team is terming an upper-body injury in the second period of Friday night's Game 2 of the first-round series against San Jose, won't be in the lineup for Sunday night's Game 3 in the Pepsi Center.

Sacco said he couldn't predict how long Porter might be out. "But he won't be available tomorrow night," the Avalanche coach said. He added that winger David Jones, who has been practicing but hasn't played since November because of a knee injury and surgery, isn't an option, either. "He's not ready to play tomorrow night, no," Sacco said.

Without Porter, Jones and Peter Mueller (concussion) available, Sacco's options would appear to be inserting one of the three healthy scratches among the forwards for Games 1 and 2 — Marek Svatos, Chris Durno, or Ryan Stoa. Another possibility, a longshot, would be to suit up a seventh defensemen, either Brett Clark or Ruslan Salei, who also haven't yet played in the series.

"I'll make the final decision in the morning," Sacco said.

Sacco declined to publicly lobby for a league suspension for Sharks defenseman Rob Blake for his hit on Avalanche winger TJ Galiardi just inside the San Jose zone in overtime, before the Sharks claimed the 6-5 victory. Blake raised his arms and reached forward, nailing Galiardi in what appeared to be the upper chest area, and Galiardi's helmet flew off.

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"The league supervisors will handle that situation," Sacco said. "We'll let them make a decision with the officials."

The Avalanche didn't practice today. The team plane landed shortly before 3 in the morning and Sacco said he decided that a practice would be counterproductive. "I just thought we needed the day of rest," Sacco said. "At this time of year, it's all about keeping your energy level up. I thought the best way to do that today was stay off the ice. We'll have a good, crisp pregame skate tomorrow morning."